1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for automatically covering a seat-frame-built-in foam cushion member with a trim cover assembly in order to produce an automotive seat, wherein the foam cushion member has been foamed together with a seat frame in a mould into a given shape of the seat, and wherein the trim cover assembly is of a sack-like type which is preformed by cover member(s) into an integral three-dimensional sack-like configuration having an opening at one side thereof.
2. Description of Prior Art
In general, the automated assemblage of an automotive seat involves using a sack-like trim cover assembly to cover a foam cushion member therewith because of its being suited for the automated process, wherein the foam cushion member has been foamed together with a seat frame in a mould into a predetermined shape of automotive seat. What will be described hereinafter as the "sack-like trim cover assembly" is the integrally preformed solid trim cover assembly having one opening at one side thereof, assuming a "sack" shape, which is preformed by a unitary tubular cover member or a few separate parts of cover members into an integral sack-like configuration having an opening defined in the lower end thereof, a closed top area defined in the upper end thereof and a tubular body portion defined between the opening and closed top area, all of which are formed integrally.
Commonly, in automated covering process, it is an ordinary first step to have such sack-like trim cover assembly turned inside out from the opening thereof in advance, to thereby provide a turned-over suck-like body of trim cover assembly and expedite covering the cushion member therewith, simply by turning again over the trim cover assembly towards the cushion member.
Conventionally, such covering process has been effected by an automated covering system or device having a set of spaced-apart forward and backward guide rollers, each being adapted to guide and turn over the respective forward and backward lateral sides of the foregoing turned-over sack-like trim cover assembly in a direction toward the corresponding forward and backward surfaces of a foam cushion member, as typically disclosed by the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Pub. No. 59-32490 and the Japanese Laid-Open U.M. Pub. No. 63-38900. According thereto, a foam cushion member is set in a manner turned upside down at a position right above the opened side of a turned-over sack-like trim cover assembly, and then lowered thereinto with the aid of those guide rollers, while again causing the trim cover assembly to be turned over, so as to cover the cushion member therewith.
However, in the conventional covering system, there is no means for locating the opened side of the trim cover assembly precisely at a point corresponding to a given upper end portion of the cushion member, before the foregoing covering process. This has been found defective in that the trim cover assembly may highly possibly be dislocated to any of four angles from a predetermined covering position, making thus difficult a precise covering of the cushion member with the cover material at that position. Further, the above-mentioned prior-art covering systems are not used to neatly affix the trim cover assembly over such an unevenly-surfaced cushion member having a recessed central area and two lateral bolster portions, because they merely effect a simple covering operation to the cushion member without any mechanism for aiding in the neat stretching of trim cover assembly over the uneven outer shape of cushion member in close contact thereupon. Consequently, there has not been available any automated covering system for realizing both the precise locating of trim cover assembly to cushion member and the neat covering of unevenly-surfaced cushion member.